The Love of Sea-Green Eyes
by liveandbreathediangelo
Summary: Nico di Angelo has been in love with Percy Jackson ever since the first time he met the older demigod at age ten. Will a new arrival make him get over the savior of Olympus, or will his forced stay at Camp Half-Blood be worse than hell? Sorry, I am so bad at summaries... it sounds worse than it is; please just check it out! Rated T just to be safe and because I am super paranoid :)
1. Chapter 1

_**AN: Okay, so this story is probably going to be not so good, but I just randomly got this idea and I'm building off it as I go. I know, I know, nobody likes OC fics, but I could not help but write this story because 1)I just love Nico to death (hehe… death… Nico… son of Hades… get it? Nevermind.) and 2)I don't find it realistic that Percy will ever leave Annabeth for Nico (although I would love and hate that… I ship Percabeth and Percico… yeah I have problems…) but I still want Nico to be happy. This is my take on what Nico's happy ending should be, so… Enjoy! Or don't…**_

**Chapter 1**

He walked forward, worn boots crunching on the gravel. He did not want to be here. At all. But no, his dad, of all people, is making him be 'social.' Who needs 'social'?

He'd been here enough times, though, to know his way past the highway, and then through the woods and to the opening of the camp. Just before crossing the border into camp, he sighed heavily, put his face in his hands and then ran them restlessly through his hair. Why did he have to do this? It would be torture having to see _them_. Every. Single. Day. Ugh.

He finally got up the courage to cross the border; and immediately regretted not turning back when he had the chance.

What he saw broke his heart cleanly in two; he was surprised that he didn't actually hear a cracking coming from his chest. He saw the couple that he most despised, sitting right at the bottom of the hill and being very flirty with one another. _Please, dad, if you are merciful at all, just kill me now,_ he silently pleaded. Unfortunately, that didn't happen; what did happen then made him cuss under his breath as if he were a sailor.

"NICO?!" He winced at his name coming from the other boy's lips. Both the boy and the girl ran at him, knocking him over with their hugs. Which, by the way, he was completely uncomfortable with. He quickly pushed them both off, and began to stalk down to his cabin. His black duffel bag swung from his right shoulder, and he shoved both of his hands in his front jeans pockets.

Inevitably, the two followed him down the hill, clambering to know 'what was going on with him,' and 'what was he doing here.' Apparently, they'd been apart for so long that the other boy and the girl with him had forgotten that 1) Nico hates attention and 2) Nico hates being touched.

So, being his stubborn self, he stayed silent the entire way to his cabin, and then he turned, sent a death glare at them both, stepped inside, and slammed the door in their faces.

Nico could hear their voices through the door: " Come on, Percy, he doesn't want to talk right now. Just leave him alone," said the girl; he completely agreed with her.

"But, it's Nico! We need to hang out with him, we need to-" Percy started, suddenly cut off by the girl.

"No, Percy, just leave him alone!" He heard the sound of someone being dragged away, and then: "But, Annabeth, we have to-"

And then there was silence. Beautiful, blissful, peaceful silence. Oh gods, he hated being near Percy! It made him feel things that… that he was not entirely comfortable feeling. He slumped against the door, too lazy to get up and put his stuff away. After what seemed like hours but in reality was probably only a few minutes, he got up and chucked his duffel bag in the corner, and then collapsed onto his bed.

What? Shadow-traveling from the Underworld takes a lot out of a guy. Maybe he would feel less exhausted if he just took a little nap…

_**AN: So, what did you guys think? Should I continue? Take it down? Never write again? Kidnap Nico and keep him in my basement? Oh, wait, I was planning on kidnapping him anyway...**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

When he woke up, groggy and disoriented, Nico heard a loud knock at his door. He groaned and smashed his face back into his pillow, hoping that whoever was at his door would just go away. When he didn't hear a second knock, Nico thought he was in the clear and began to fall asleep again. Just as he was drifting off, there was another knock, and this time the person began shouting at him.

"Nico! Get up! You have been in your cabin for an entire day and you should at least eat something!" _Ugh_. It was that annoying son of Jupiter. Somehow, he had managed to forget that he would see Jason here, and then Nico repeatedly smashed his face into his pillow, because how could his life always get worse than what he thought it would be?

He rolled out of his bed, still dressed in the clothes that he arrived in, which were now all rumpled and twisted around his body, and he grouchily opened the door.

"What do you want, Grace?" He spat; he did not need the other boy bugging him right now, or ever, for that matter. He did have to give Jason credit, though; the other boy had been trying to hang out with Nico more ever since the incident in Croatia, even when his presence was unwanted by the Ghost King. But Nico could tell; no matter how friendly Jason acted toward him, Jason was still wary and afraid of the son of Hades; and Nico thought it was better that way.

Breaking out of his stupor, Nico just managed to catch the end of Jason's rant.

"...Percy and Annabeth, and Hazel and Frank will be there. Hazel wanted me to come get you because she felt that you should join us, and I have to say that I agree."

Nico just stared at him blankly. "What?"

Jason sighed. "You weren't listening to a thing I said, were you?" At Nico's pointed look that said, _Of course not_, Jason explained-again- "Okay, well, we are having a meeting up at Thalia's Tree to wait for Mrs. O'Leary, Percy, and Annabeth to show up, and then we are going to go out with them and Hazel and Frank and do something fun. Sound good? Good. Now get dressed and meet me out here as soon as you can; maybe twenty minutes?" The son of Jupiter shoved Nico back into his cabin and shut the door without even waiting for Nico's response; but of course he was going to go; he had been neglecting Hazel lately and if she wanted him to hang out with the rest of them, then so be it.

He quickly showered and dressed, then walked out the door while simultaneously strapping his Stygian iron sword to his side.

"Hey! You actually came out! I didn't think you actually would…Hey, Nico, wait up!" Jason shouted at Nico as soon as the younger boy walked out of his cabin; it took Jason a couple seconds to realize that Nico had just kept on walking past him and up toward Half-Blood Hill. When he reached the top, he spotted Peleus the dragon guarding the Golden Fleece, which was still hanging from one of the lower boughs of Thalia's Tree.

He heard footsteps behind him and the panting of people-what sounded to be two people.

"Hey, Nico! How have you been? I haven't seen you in so long!" As soon as they finished speaking, Nico was locked in a bone-crushing bear hug; when he looked down, he noticed it was Hazel. _Jeez, she's strong for such a little person_, he thought.

He looked past his sister, who seemed as if she was not going to let go of him for a while, and saw Frank. He waved, well, he waved as much as he could with his sister pinning his arms to his body, and greeted her boyfriend.

"Hey, Frank." Frank looked surprised that Nico had addressed him, and he warily waved back, making Nico chuckle. He liked Frank, he really did, because he treated his sister right and he didn't try to touch Nico all that much.

After Hazel was done with her hug-fest, she began to berate him for not hanging out with her sooner, he could've at least sent her an IM, or sent a letter or something.

"Yeah, Hazel, I know I'm sorry; Dad has been keeping me pretty busy in the Underworld and he only barely let me come up here." More like forced.

Jason stepped in before Hazel could go off on another rant. "Okay, Hazel, I think he gets your point, he should contact you more." It looked like Jason was about to say something else, but something caught his attention over Nico's shoulder and his eyes widened considerably. _Uh-oh_.

"HELP! HELP US, PLEASE!" At the sound of the shouts Nico whipped his head around to look down at the base of Half-Blood Hill, and was actually...confused at what he saw. There was a girl, with long dark brown hair, olive-tan skin, and brown eyes, and she was carrying a satyr over her shoulder, who looked to be unconscious. The girl had screamed because there was a giant-something attacking her, but it was a monster that Nico had never seen around camp, mostly because they never ventured this far. The girl was battling, all by herself plus the added weight of a satyr, with a chimera. And she was starting to slow down.

Snapping out of his daze, Nico sprinted down the hill and toward the girl, freeing his Stygian iron sword from its scabbard on his way. He leaped up onto the head of the lion and began slashing at it. The lion roared loudly and dumped Nico off its head. He now had the attention of all three heads, plus the double snake tail. As he charged the monster again, he saw the girl out of the corner of his eye. She had stashed the satyr away somewhere safe and was..._fighting the monster with him?_

He had thought that as soon as they had appeared, the girl would run. But no, she was holding her own, and had already blinded the goat head of the beast with what looked to be a large shard of glass. Together, with the added help of Jason, Hazel, and Frank, they took the chimera down.

Breathing heavily and bleeding from a few shallow scrapes, Nico approached the girl, who was in much worse shape than he was. Her shirt was a torn up rag, revealing deep, nasty cuts across her abdomen, and she had other lacerations all over the rest of her body. It seemed that she was just a mess of blood and dirt; she was barely conscious, probably having lost too much blood already. Nico quickly sheathed his sword, picked her up, and raced back up the hill, on his way to the Big House. Upon arriving he just shouldered his way through the front door and barreled toward the infirmary, trying to get there before it was too late.

In no time, he had the Apollo kids working on her and he just collapsed in the chair outside on the porch. The other three soon caught up with him and, after Jason had carried the satyr into the infirmary as well, they all sat around on the porch, silently waiting to hear if she was okay.

Chiron came out just as the sun was setting, waking each of them up gently.

"Before you ask, yes, she and the satyr are alright, but they are sleeping now. Why don't you go back to your cabins and get some rest; you can visit her tomorrow. I'm sure she'd like to meet you four." They each trudged off, waving their goodbyes. Hazel and Frank went to go stay in the Roman Ambassador cabin together, so Nico had the whole cabin to himself.

He threw the door open and then slammed it shut. He collapsed on top of his comforter, pausing only to kick off his muddy boots before falling into a blissfully dreamless sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

He woke up and groggily looked over at the clock on his bedside table. 7:00 A.M., it read. Snapping to full attention, he jumped out of bed and threw on random pieces of clothing lying around his room. He shoved his feet into his sneakers and scooped up his Stygian iron sword, attaching it on his way to the Big House. Nico had no clue why he was in such a hurry to see if the girl and her satyr were alright, but he guessed it had something to do with the fact that he respected the girl for not only protecting her satyr, but also for staying and fighting with him when she could have run to safety.

He hurriedly pushed his way through the halls of the Big House, searching for the Infirmary. When he finally found it, he was practically out of breath. There they were, lying peacefully in their respective cots. Well, the satyr was peaceful. The girl, on the other hand, was whimpering, with a frown on her face.

Upon moving closer to her, he realized that her face was also slightly damp from tears. Every once in a while, a heart wrenching scream would tear from her throat, but she would immediately quiet herself. It was almost as if she was trying to keep everything in so that she wouldn't disturb anyone else.

Taking pity on her, Nico gently took her shoulders and gave them a little shake, each one becoming more forceful the longer she stayed trapped in her nightmare.

Suddenly, her eyes flew open, and she sat upright with a gasp. She looked around wildly, defending herself from some unseen threat, until her eyes found his. It was his turn to gasp. Her eyes were a deep chocolate brown, very normal, but the emotions swirling in their depths surprised him. She was scared, yes, but she was also fiercely determined and loyal; and there was also great sadness, but she turned her face before he could interpret any of the other emotions.

When she finally did turn back to him, she had wiped her face of not only her tears, but of all the emotions previously adorning her features. She gave him a small, practiced smile, stuck out her hand, and spoke her first words to him.

"Hi. My name is Taylor DeLuca." She then took a moment to really look at him, and, as she dropped her hand, a spark of recognition lit behind her eyes. "Weren't you the dark haired boy that saved us?"

He didn't really know what to say to that. He hadn't really thought about it that way. So he just shrugged at her, avoiding eye contact.

"You were! Well, thank you. Very much. Sam over there," she paused and pointed toward the unconscious satyr, "Had been knocked out a couple blocks back when the chimera swung one of its snake tails at us. I couldn't leave her, but I doubt I would have gotten much farther than the bottom of the hill if you and your three other friends hadn't come to help."

She sounded really grateful, and he couldn't just stay silent this time. "Well, you seemed to have been holding your own, even being as exhausted as you were. By the way," he added, "Why didn't you run when we showed up? You didn't have to stay. We could've taken care of it."

She looked slightly stunned at the fact that he had spoken so much after being silent for so long.

"Well," she said, slowly recovering from her initial shock, "I didn't think it would be a good way to repay you for helping me by running away. And besides, if I really am a demigod, I need to learn to fight and to stand my ground."

_She knew?_ "How do you-"

She cut him off. "Well, Sam kinda had to tell me, because at the time there was a huge chimera attacking us, and she had already revealed her identity, so I guess it was pointless to try to keep it hidden at that point."

_Well, I guess that makes sense_, he thought. He just shrugged and slowly began backing out of the doorway. "Well, I'm glad you're alright." Just as he went to turn around, he felt a hand on his wrist. He flinched from the unexpected contact, and turned to see the girl staring up at him with a question in her big brown eyes. Wow, she's short, he thought distractedly.

"Where are you going?"

"Uh, back to my cabin. And you should stay here, you nearly died," he said, taking her hand and removing it from his wrist. Nico turned back around and strode out the door, his long legs allowing him to take long strides and therefore get the heck out of there as fast as possible. He had already had too much human contact for one day.

He heard quick steps on the hardwood floor behind him. "Get back here! First off I don't even know your name, and second you're my only friend here, and I have no clue where I'm going, so you can't just leave me!" Again, there was the small hand encircling his wrist.

Nico sighed. It seems that this girl was just as persistent as Percy.

_Ugh_. Even the thought of the stupid green-eyed demigod put Nico's stomach in knots. _Stupid, stupid, stupid_.

"Hello? Are you alright?" He was pulled out of his thoughts to see Taylor waving her hand in front of his face, trying to get his attention.

"Nico di Angelo. And no, I'm not." He tried for a quick escape once more, but Taylor wasn't having it. He groaned. This girl would be hard to get rid of.

"Alright, Nico, why am I not your friend? Is it a new kid thing?" She looked determined, with fire in her eyes and her hands on her hips, staring up at him with a 'don't-you-dare-leave-me-by-myself-mister' look.

Before he could even attempt to respond (or escape), Chiron appeared.

"Ah, Mr. di Angelo. Nice to see that you are already checking on our newest camper. Would you mind showing her around, seeing as she's already up and about?"

_Great_. He couldn't say no to Chiron, not after all the kind centaur had done for him.

"Sure, yeah," he said unenthusiastically.

Taylor shot him a look of triumph. "Guess you're stuck with me, Neeks."

He shot her a glare as they walked out the front door. "Don't call me that."

She just simply smiled, and they fell into a comfortable silence, only broken by Nico's occasional comments about the camp and what everything was.

Well, until Percy spotted them.

"Shit," Nico swore under his breath, trying to make himself as small as possible in the hopes that he could disappear. No such luck.

"Hey, Neeks, how are you! I haven't seen you in so long!" Percy spread his arms as if to hug him, but he seemed to remember Nico's loathing for human contact, and he, thankfully, dropped his arms.

"Don't call me that," Nico said, slightly blushing at the nickname. He secretly loved when Percy called him by that nickname, but he wouldn't let the older demigod know that.

Ignoring him, Percy finally noticed Taylor, who was awkwardly hovering behind Nico, unsure what to do during their conversation. "Who's your friend, Neeks?" He said, extending his hand for her to shake, which she tentatively took. "I'm Percy Jackson, long-time friend of Nico di Angelo," giving her his famous lop-sided grin.

"I'm Taylor DeLuca, very new friend of Nico di Angelo," she responded, trying and failing to suppress a grin.

Percy then swung an arm around Nico's shoulders, making him stiffen, and said, "Well, take good care of this guy, alright? He's a good guy."

Taylor, sensing Nico's discomfort and spotting his increasingly reddening face, said, "I will, Percy. It was really nice meeting you, but Nico has just promised to show me the stables, so we've got to go. I'll see you around!" She then flashed Percy a wide grin and grabbed Nico's arm, half-dragging, half-running with him in the direction of the stables, which they'd already seen. When they reached the stables, gasping and out of breath, she huffed out a "You're welcome."

Nico, after catching his breath, rolled his eyes and made his way out of the stables, calling out a muffled "thanks" over his shoulder.

When she finally caught up to him, she looked very smug. "What?" He asked, noticing that her look was directed at him.

"Oh, nothing," she said breathily, a huge grin plastered on her face. "Where to next, _new friend_?"

He ignored her and began to walk toward the Dining Pavilion. Ever since the end of the war with Gaea, he had, slowly but surely, began to gain his appetite back, and his stomach was grumbling. He figured Taylor was hungry too, and the sounds of her stomach confirmed his suspicions.

He flashed her a small smile, saying, "We've pretty much covered everything of importance. Now, it's time to eat."

When they reached the Dining Pavilion, there were already many kids milling around, stuffing their faces and sacrificing portions of their meals to their godly parents. He grabbed a dish and handed one to Taylor, who looked really confused. _Oh, right_. She probably had no clue what to do.

"Just think of what you want to eat, and it will appear there."

She looked up at him, with a startled-but-grateful look. "Thanks."

He shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'no problem.'

He then thought of something else she should know. "When you have food on your plate, you have to scrape some of it into the brazier," he said, pointing to it, "And offer it up to the gods. Seeing as you haven't been claimed yet, you can just offer it up to the gods asking them to reveal who your godly parent is." She nodded her head, trying to absorb everything all at once.

Nico started toward the brazier, two burgers already on his plate. He looked over, and Taylor had a burger on her plate. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she looked at him indignantly.

"What? Just because I'm a girl, I'm supposed to have a salad all the time? I like red meat just as much as the next guy, pal." He chuckled, shaking his head, and scraped the second burger into the fire, whispering "_Hades_" as he did so.

He loped over to his table and began eating. From his position at the Hades table, he saw another burger appear on Taylor's plate, and then watched as she scraped it into the fire and sent up her plea to whoever her godly parent was.

Nico had just begun to dig into his burger once again when he saw a tray, and then its owner, drop into the seat across from him. He looked up and was met with the big brown eyes of none other than Taylor. This time, he scowled at her. She wasn't supposed to be sitting with him.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Calm down, Neeks. I already talked to Chiron, and he said I could sit at any table I wanted to sit at, seeing as the Hermes table was full. So, here I am." This girl was full of surprises.

Sure enough, when he looked over at the Hermes table, it was so full that campers were either close to falling off or sitting on top of each other. But, the other cabins began shooting them weird looks. He knew what they were thinking. '_Who would willingly spend time with the son of Hades?'_ Even he didn't have the answer to that question.

Nico just shrugged and focused back on his meal, savoring the taste of his burger. Soon enough, though, he heard gasps and murmurings escaping the other campers, and just as he finished eating he chanced a glance upwards to see what the commotion was about.

Needless to say, he was shocked by what he saw. He'd never seen anything like it before, didn't even think that the gods allowed things like this to happen. But, no, he saw correctly.

Taylor had just been claimed, but she was more powerful than all the other campers, second only to the children of the Big Three.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Nico rubbed his eyes, making sure he wasn't seeing things. But no, he saw correctly; this was no ordinary claiming.

Taylor had not one, but two symbols above her head. The first symbol, the one closest to her head, was the grey owl of Athena. But floating directly above the grey owl was the glowing, deep-purple symbol of Hecate.

Chiron trotted over, eyes as wide as saucers and his mouth gaping. Finally composing himself, Chiron said, "Ms. DeLuca, would you mind coming to the Big House with me? This is a very rare occurrence indeed."

For the first time since she was claimed, Nico took a look at Taylor herself instead of the symbols above her head. She looked frightened and confused, and he couldn't help but feel badly.

"Chiron?" She tentatively said, wringing her hands together. "Could...um, could I please b-bring Nico with me?"

Taken aback, Nico's jaw dropped and he blinked in surprise, but he quickly pulled himself together. Chiron also blinked in surprise, but quickly agreed. Soon the three of them were on their way to the Big House, incredulous stares following their every move.

Once inside the Big House, Chiron turned to a shell-shocked Taylor and asked, "Did you know that your father was a child of Hecate?"

Taylor numbly shook her head, still trying to absorb all the new information. "I...I had no idea. Why is this such a big deal? Did I do something wrong? Did my _dad_ do something wrong?"

Chiron sighed, rubbing his temples with his fingers. "Your grandfather had a child-your father-with Hecate, making him a demigod. I am not sure if your father knew he was a demigod or not, but he definitely knew that the gods existed, because he then had you with the goddess Athena."

Sensing that she was just about to voice more of her unresolved questions, he continued. "Neither you nor your father have done anything wrong, this is just a very rare thing to happen. It's not bad, you just need to be careful, because your heritage makes you very powerful; possibly as powerful as the children of the Big Three."

Nico could tell that Taylor was feeling increasingly uncomfortable, and he decided that now was a good time to pay her back for helping him with Percy.

"Uh, Chiron? I'll take care of her from here. We still have the tour to finish, so we should get going now…"

After Chiron quickly and politely dismissed them, Nico dragged Taylor out of the Big House and to the edge of the woods where she could collect herself. On the way there she looked at him in wild confusion, but she refused to speak. Once she finally pulled herself together, she looked up at him with large, slightly watery eyes.

"Please don't treat me any differently. I really like being your friend, Nico, even though I've barely known you for a day."

His normally expressionless mask morphed into one of surprise as he said, "What kind of a person would that make me if I abandoned you just because you may or may not be as powerful as I am?"

Though her features gave away nothing, Nico could read the blatant relief and gratefulness in her eyes. Wiping away the tears that had threatened to spill just moments before, Taylor plastered a lopsided grin on on her face and began dragging him back towards the cabins. "Come on!" She shouted, "You didn't finish giving me my tour yet, Di Angelo!"

She dragged him to every inch of the camp, making him explain everything, even though she already knew pretty much all the gods and goddesses and what aspect of the universe they controlled. Finally, she allowed him to collapse next to the lake, Taylor falling down right next to him.

After a couple minutes, she sat up and scooted to the edge of the lake, motioning for Nico to do the same. She waited a few moments before breaking the silence.

"I had so much fun today, Nico. Thanks for putting up with me for so long." As she turned her head from him, he just caught the edge of her smile.

He shrugged. "It wasn't TOO bad."

Already recognizing his dry humor, she rolled her eyes and flopped down on the grass once more, Nico, again, mirroring her movements. Neither of them wanted to pierce the comforting blanket of silence, but it was when Taylor yawned that the pair finally realized how late it was. Not a moment later, they decided to head back to their cabins-a better option than having a run-in with hungry harpies.

Nico walked Taylor to the Athena cabin, making sure she didn't get lost. Once there, she turned around on the doorstep, gave him a bone-crushing hug, told Nico goodnight and promised that she would hang out with him tomorrow.

Instead of shadow-traveling back to his cabin, Nico walked, giving him time to replay the past two days in his head. So much had changed in such a short period of time. Finally closing the door behind him, Nico slid off his boots and wriggled out of his jeans and T-shirt. Deciding to slide into bed in just his boxer shorts, he continued his thought process while staring up at his black ceiling.

Surprisingly, the son of Hades felt a smile find its way onto his lips, and a short chuckle managed to escape as well. Sure, he was a little broken, but maybe he wasn't creepy, or weird, or unaccepted, or any of the many names he heard others whisper when they thought he couldn't hear. Maybe he just needed the right person to come along and fix him.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hey guys! Again, sorry this took so long... School is definitely not helping my busy schedule. It would be really great if you guys could review this for me, because I'm not really sure how much I like this chapter-I feel like it could be better, but I felt like I at least owed you guys SOMETHING.**

_**Guest: I LOVE IT, UPDATE I BEG YOU! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THAT ITS FROM NICOS PERSPECTIVE PLEASE KEEP IT THAT WAY! Ugh maybe you could change up... Hmmm nah I like it better Nicos perspective with him like slowly falling for her. It's like different and unique.**_

**One last thing-that was a guest review on my last chapter that I actually kept in my email notifications because it made me really happy and it made me feel as if my writing was actually good- so, whoever wrote that review, if you're still here, thank you so much! You are one of the many reasons why I love to write; it makes me happy that my writing makes others happy :) Well I know that you guys probably didn't read this anyway but I just wanted to get that in there. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 5**

Nico woke up and dressed quickly. Surprisingly, the son of Hades was actually really hungry this morning. After the war with Gaea, he had started to eat more, but he rarely ever got so hungry that his stomach started to growl at him.

It was one of those days.

Once at the Dining Pavilion, he quickly grabbed a plate, thought of the breakfast he wanted-chocolate chip pancakes and some orange juice-and scraped part of it into the brazier in the middle of the room, offering it up to Hades, then speedily scarfed down his breakfast.

He knew that Taylor was supposed to meet up with him today, to do gods-know-what, but he hadn't seen her yet. Assuming she was still sleeping, Nico went up to the sword arena to practice.

"Nico!" A pair of tanned, muscled arms encircled Nico, squeezing him so hard he was nearly out of breath. The same voice then spoke in his ear, "Do you want to be my sparring partner?" It was then that the arms removed themselves from his body, and Nico turned around to see who the arms belonged to. Nico froze, mid-response, his face and neck slowly heating up.

The arms belonged to none other than Percy Jackson.

"How are you, Neeks?" Percy said. Then, seemingly realizing that Nico was steadily turning a very dark shade of pink, he asked, "Uh, Neeks? You alright? Do you have a fever?" Then, being the caring _idiot_ he is, Percy tried to feel Nico's face for a temperature.

As soon as Percy's fingers brushed Nico's cheeks, he immediately snapped out of his stupor and jumped backward, breathing heavily and frantically looking around for an escape. He would give anything, so long as he could just get away from Percy.

"Oh, Nico!" yelled a distant voice, just outside the arena.

"Gotta go, bye," Nico called, already springing for the exit, thanking the gods for whoever needed him right now. Once outside, Nico listened hard for the voice again. Finding the source, he scrambled to it, as far away from the arena and Percy Jackson as possible.

He was greeted with the sight of Jason dragging his girlfriend behind him, urgently searching for the scrawny son of death.

"There you are! Okay, so you know that girl from the other day? Taylor? Well, I think you need to see this." Jason then proceeded to grab Nico's wrist, which he wasn't allowed to do, and pull him away, which he _also_ wasn't allowed to do. But, because Nico was curious as to what was going on, he let it go, just this once.

When Jason finally stopped pulling him and let Nico walk on his own, they had reached the Big House. The son of Jupiter didn't stop, though, continuing on through the front door, Nico and Piper trailing behind him. He walked right through a room in the Infirmary, and over to one of the many cots.

When Nico reached the bedside, he cringed; she looked horrible. Taylor lay prone on the cot, looking more like a mummy than her usual self. Her forehead and the crown of her head were wrapped in bandages, as were her entire chest and torso, as well as her shins and upper arms. Peeking out from beneath her short pajama shorts were huge, ugly bruises, some a sickly yellow color, but most of which were a nasty blue-black-purple. The visible skin of her arms was also covered in bruises, and her hair was slightly matted with blood.

Luckily, she had no broken bones, but Nico still felt a hot flare of anger; _why would someone do this to her?_ Was it because of her power? He would have to remind those bullies of their place.

Taylor's eyes fluttered open, and she immediately caught sight of Nico. "Oh, Nico, I'm so sorry! I really wanted to hang out with you today, but I… I got a bit caught up," she said, accompanying her statement with a weak chuckle, and a sharp, painful intake of breath following.

The son of Hades looked the daughter of Athena in the eyes. "Taylor," he said, eerily calm, "Who did this to you?" Her eyes widened and she began to shake her head, but thought better of it.

"Nico, really, it's no big deal. Some ambrosia and nectar and I'll be as good as new! See? Jason, could you hand me-thank you," she said, taking the square of ambrosia from Jason and popping it into her mouth.

The bruises disappeared, and when she unraveled the bandages, the cuts in her skin began to knit back together as well. Seeing her like this, Nico resigned himself to look after the girl-he knew what it was like to be pushed around and bullied for something you couldn't change about yourself.

Taylor then looked up sheepishly, a slight pink tinge to her face. "Um, guys, I don't have, a, um, shirt. It kinda got shredded…." Both boys' faces, at their realization, turned a bright pink, each one looking anywhere but at the girl lying on the hospital cot.

"Oh, please, grow up," came a voice from the doorway. Piper walked in and, shucking off her camp shirt as she went, revealed her light grey tank top underneath. "Here, let me help you put this on." Looking back at the two frozen males, she forced them out of the room, muttering about how 'boys are useless' and 'where has chivalry gone?'

Minutes later, the two emerged, Taylor in Piper's camp T-shirt and Piper in her tank top.

"Alright, Jase, let's leave these two be. They've got plans together, and so do we!" Piper smiled kindly at Taylor, adding, "And you can call me any time you need me; my door is always open, okay?"

Taylor shot back a shy smile of her own. "Okay. Thanks, Piper, you were really a big help. And I think I might take you up on that offer."

As soon as the two were out of sight, the son of Hades went to open his mouth, but the worn-out girl standing next to him cut him off before any words could escape from his lips.

"Nico, you're not going to do anything. I'm just really tired, so could we just take it easy today? Sound good?" And, again, the girl set off, not giving Nico the chance to get a word in edgewise. Seeing no choice but to follow her, Nico took a few wide strides, quickly catching up to the little daughter of Athena. He had no clue where they were going or what they were going to do; he just silently followed, figuring his chances of survival would be better that way; Taylor didn't look particularly enraged, she just had a certain gleam in her eyes that Nico knew he wouldn't like.

Before he knew it, Nico was right back at the sword arena, walking through the doors before he could even register what had just happened.

Immediately he looked for the son of Poseidon; and found him. And boy, what a sight he was: Percy had been training so hard that his shirt had been drenched in sweat, so _of course_ the beautiful demigod felt it necessary to just discard his shirt altogether. His cheeks were flushed from exertion and his wild black hair was slicked in even more sweat, but Nico could barely manage to keep the blood from heating his face, never mind managing to keep his _heart_ in check. Before the son of the sea-god could spot them, Nico tried to convince Taylor that training could wait for another day.

The daughter of Athena wasn't having it.

"I've already been here a couple days and I haven't even so much as picked up a sword, never mind training with one. I need to learn how to defend myself, as you so conveniently found out this morning."

_Well, crap_, he thought. _There is no way to get out of this._

"Alright, well, we need to get you a-" He was cut off by Taylor grabbing a celestial bronze sword off a nearby bench with a few of her other belongings; it was the perfect length and weight for someone of her size and strength. "Uh, okay then, you have a sword. We should start with the practice dummies, then. Just start weighing in your hand first, don't try for any real strikes yet."

As of yet, Percy still hadn't noticed them; not that the son of Hades was complaining. Nico was just not looking forward to the moment when Percy did realize that they were in the arena with him. The son of Hades, careful to keep out of Percy's line of sight, guided Taylor over to the practice dummies on the other side of the arena.

Taylor, being a daughter of Athena first and foremost, took a few seconds to analyze the dummy and to pinpoint where it would be best to strike. Quickly, she lifted her sword and swung it experimentally, dodging in and out near the dummy, making the normally ugly, violent slashes seem almost like a graceful dance.

When she finally stopped, panting heavily and drenched in sweat, the dummy had deep slashes in the most vital places: near the heart, spine, wrists, elbows, and backs of the thighs. The demigods, both the expert and the novice, looked at the girl's handiwork in shock. Taylor, in her stupor, nearly dropped her sword, but she quickly regained her grip as well as her wits.

"How was that?" She asked, still slightly out of breath and red-faced.

Nico, also snapping out of his daze, gave her a full-toothed grin. "Actually, that was very good, for someone who has never picked up a sword before," he teased.

Taylor's already pink cheeks turned a slightly darker shade. "Well, no harm, no foul, right? There's nothing wrong with practicing by myself." At her response, Nico burst out laughing, Taylor soon following. Catching their breath for what felt like the twentieth time, Nico began strategizing on different ways to clean up her technique a bit.

Grabbing his sword from his belt and shucking off his jacket, Nico turned to face Taylor to instruct her further. "Alright, so while what you just did was quite impressive, there are a few places that I would really like to clean up a bit. There really is no such thing as infallible swordsmanship, but I want you to be as close to that as possible. Got it?" At Taylor's nod of affirmation, Nico continued. "Okay, good. So, I'm going to show you a couple things, slowly at first, then you're going to try them."

Just as he finished orally instructing her, Nico slowly showed her the proper way to parry, dodge, thrust, and many more simple moves that when either standing alone or put together could be very deadly.

Taylor kept up with him quite well, her large chocolate-brown eyes drinking in every word he said. Eventually, though, there was a move she couldn't quite get. He could see why; Nico himself had learned this move from watching Percy Jackson, and even the son of the sea god had learned it from Luke Castellan. Nico knew this move was the most effective way to disarm your opponent, and wanted Taylor to learn it.

He repeatedly showed the daughter of Athena the maneuver. But, no matter how hard she tried, she simply could not get it just right. Eventually, Nico began to get a bit frustrated. He shoved his own sword into a dummy's hand and grabbed her from behind, positioning her arms and her sword. He went through it again, this time using her arms as if they were his own.

After a while, Nico became aware of just how close they were, and he could pinpoint exactly where her back was pressed up against his chest. The son of Hades quickly stepped away and dropped her arms, feeling his face heat up.

_What is going on?_ He thought. _She's a girl; there's nothing to be embarrassed about!_

"Nico? Hey, Nico, is everything alright?" Eventually, when he was able to bring his eyes to her face, he almost had to do a double take; Taylor was blushing almost as badly as he was!

"Yeah, I just remembered that I have to go do...stuff. See you later." And, like the coward he was, he got out of there as quickly as he possibly could without shadow traveling.

On his way back to his cabin, Nico started to slightly freak out.

_What was that?! Why did I start blushing? Why was she blushing? Or, even a better question, why did I even touch her in the first place?!_

"Hey, Neeks! What's wrong?"

Nico turned around and groaned, shadow-traveling as quickly as his exhausted body could take him. He didn't need this right now. He didn't need _any_ of this right now.

As soon as he landed face-first on his bed, he shucked off his sweaty clothes and muddy boots. Crawling under the silky sheets, the son of Hades willed sleep to come quickly, giving him a reprieve from the day.

Sleep thankfully obliged.


	6. Chapter 6

Nico slept like a rock. In fact, he probably would have slept through the entire day if it hadn't been for the _knock-knock-knocking_ on his door.

"Nico? Hey, man, you need to come out. You've already missed breakfast and lunch and you're about to miss dinner, too. Are you okay in there? Yesterday you seemed a bit… frustrated."

Well, it seems that he already had slept through the day anyway. Although, Nico, however much he actually enjoyed the blonde's company, was not in the mood for dealing with his overly-supportive attitude. He just needed some time to figure out whatever yesterday was.

More banging. "Hey, Neeks, it's fine if you don't want to get up just yet, but at least open the door so I can give you some food. You can't go the entire day without getting anything in your system. I'm worried about you, man."

That stupid son of Jupiter would be the death of him. Nico groaned and rolled out of bed, crashing onto the floor and pretty much dragging himself to the door. He actually had to shield his eyes from the brightness outside, even though the day was just melting into evening; that's how dark his cabin was.

The older blonde immediately checked to make sure Nico was physically intact, then pushed the smaller boy back into his cabin, inviting himself in as well, and shutting the door once more. After assuring that there was nothing visibly wrong with the darker boy, Jason just crossed his arms and looked into Nico's eyes, waiting for an explanation once Nico was ready to give one.

Nico came very close to just blurting everything out, but he stopped himself and flopped backward onto his bed.

Jason remained silent, knowing that Nico would tell him when he was ready. Ignoring the son of Jupiter, Nico pulled himself up off the bed after giving Jason an 'I'll tell you later' look and locking himself in the bathroom with the intention of taking a cold shower, seeing as how he'd forgotten to take one yesterday. Just as he stepped into the cold spray, he heard a loud sigh and the opening and closing of the door.

As soon as he'd finished, he towel-dried his hair until it was damp and then wrapped another towel around his waist before walking out of the bathroom. Wrapping the towel more firmly around his waist, Nico bent down to grab some clean clothes out of his dresser drawers. He stilled himself as he heard the creak of the door, and turned around to see a bright-red Taylor in the doorway, her stare transfixed on, well, him.

The son of Hades was so surprised that he couldn't do anything but stare at the Athenian child until she made a move to leave.

"Hey, wait! Taylor, why don't you, uh, come in and sit down? I mean, I just need to get dressed and then, I don't know, maybe we can do something?" For some reason, Nico's heart was beating wildly as he proposed this- probably because he was only wearing a towel and his current best friend was here to see it.

Nico faintly saw Taylor swallow and then nod, and she slowly moved to close the door and sit on the bed, which weirdly made Nico's chest tighten even more.

"So, I'll be right back…." _Way to play it cool there, Nico,_ he thought to himself.

He finally closed the bathroom door behind himself and got dressed as quickly as possible and then reemerged, throwing the damp towel into a corner with his other dirty clothes. Taylor, who had stood up as soon as he'd come out of the bathroom, began to make her way to the door, Nico in tow.

They began walking in silence, leaving Nico to his thoughts. Why was he acting so weirdly around her? Probably because he'd never been this close with anybody since Bianca, and they had only just met. _Yeah, that must be it,_ he convinced himself.

Walking with Taylor, he began to notice small little details.

She smelled like a strange combination of grass and vanilla and old books, but she somehow made it pleasant. She claimed to have boring brown eyes and yet, when the sun caught them, her irises each became little golden sunbursts of their own. As her hair caught the light at different angles, he began to notice that the sun transformed it from its normal brown color to a mixture of browns and reds and golds.

Snapping out of his reverie, he mounted the small set of steps up to the Dining Pavilion, Taylor at his side. They ritualistically grabbed their plates, imagined their food into existence, dumped an offering into the brazier and sat down at their usual table together. Each of them was uncharacteristically quiet, but it was a comfortable silence. For once, they were able to eat in peace and just enjoy each other's company.

"Nico! Where have ya been, man?"

Or not.

Next thing Nico knew, a large weight slumped onto the bench next to him and swung its arm around his shoulder, another weight soon following on his other side. Nico closed his eyes and sighed, before opening his eyes and responding to The Two Biggest Nuances On Earth, a.k.a., Golden Boy and Seaweed Brain.

"Guys, I was only sleeping. I am allowed to do that every once in a while, you know," the Ghost King said dryly.

He heard Taylor snort behind her hand, making the corners of his mouth quirk up. Percy, however, seemingly ignored them both and plowed on, even sounding concerned about the son of Hades.

"Come on, Neeks, you couldn't have been that tired. Were you avoiding us again?"

Shooting his soon-to-be-forgotten food a forlorn look, Nico got up and dumped the rest of his breakfast/dinner into the blaze, gearing himself up to be drilled with endless questions. Looking back up at his table, ready to shoot Taylor a 'for the love of the gods above please help me' look, Nico just caught a glimpse of a very confused Taylor being dragged away by Annabeth and Piper. Great; it seems that it was a planned abduction after all.

"Unnnggggghhhh," Nico groaned as he exhaustedly flopped down on his bed. He'd wanted to spend the day with Taylor, but only got to see her for about ten minutes before those two lug heads dragged him off for the rest of the day. Ugh. Nico's head hurt just thinking about the non-stop mental drilling those two put him through. Well, Taylor must have suffered through the same thing, though her ordeal was probably executed with much more subtlety than his was.

Speaking of Taylor, Nico just couldn't wrap his head around what was going on between them. Yeah, okay, maybe he was acting weird for no reason, but she wasn't on her way to being anywhere close to normal around him either! He had to figure out what was going on between them, or his head might just explode.

He thought about getting in some sword practice to clear his head, but even the mere thought of having to move that much made Nico feel lazier than ever. He had to do something, though; he couldn't just sit there. He supposed that he could go looking for Taylor and save her from whatever mental torture the girls were putting her through.

Nico was already up and out the door when it occurred to him that it was quite strange of the girls to steal Taylor for the day. Come to think of it, why _had_ the girls 'kidnapped' Taylor? Him, he could understand; he'd practically been avoiding them for the last day. But her? They barely knew her!

Nico was so absorbed in his musings that he nearly missed the laughter coming from the Aphrodite cabin. This should be a normal occurrence, but as he slunk closer, the Ghost King began to make out the voices; Annabeth's, Taylor's, and Piper's. So, the interrogation was still ongoing.

Instead of knocking, Nico found himself pressing his ear to the door and listening in to the girls' conversation. What he heard made him think that there could actually be normal teenagers behind that door instead of deadly female killing machines.

"Oh, come _on_! There is no way that you don't have your eye on someone! Boy? Girl? What d'you prefer? We don't judge!"

"Now isn't the time for that particular speech, Pipes."

"Guys, really, there isn't anybody I'm interested in at the moment. Seriously. Can we move on now?"

"Aha! She changed the subject! That means there _is_ someone! Come on, you can tell us! Who is it?"

"Piper, your Aphrodite is showing." _Thud._ "Calm down, I was kidding. Slightly." _Thud._ "Alright, alright, I'll stop, jeez, Pipes, knock it off."

"Piper," Nico heard Taylor plead, "Please stop hitting Annabeth." _Pause. Deep breath._ "I, uh, I suppose that there is someone, but I- he doesn't like me that way. There, all done, can I go to bed now?"

Nico nearly fell over from the sudden high-pitched squee that erupted from behind the wooden door. For some reason, he felt completely at odds with Piper's excitement; there was a tight feeling in his chest that made Nico feel uneasy.

"You can't just leave us with that! You have to at least tell us _something_ about him if you won't tell us his name!"

"Fine. Well, he's taller than me, and he has dark hair and dark eyes. He doesn't seem like he likes people but he does, he's just very nervous in social situations. He's like a giant teddy bear, really, I mean he's-"

"I knew it! I knew it, I called it! Who called it? Me! I did! Woo-hoo!" He felt more than heard Piper's happy dance through the front steps. Nico really wanted to know who had already captured so much of Taylor's attention, but he felt guilty enough; she would tell him when she was ready to.

With that comforting thought, Nico knocked on the door and was immediately met with the faces of the three girls, their expressions turning to that of surprise when they saw he was at the door.

"Hey, I was out and I heard that Taylor was still in there and I was just wondering if, maybe, you'd want me to walk you back to your cabin?" Nico had never felt more ridiculous in his entire life, but Taylor's blinding smile and cheery "That'd be great," completely made up for it. The tiny daughter of Athena said goodbye to her two newfound friends and began walking with Nico back to the Athena cabin.

They walked in silence once again, but once they reached the front steps Taylor turned around to thank the pale boy.

"Absolutely no problem, I'm just sorry that I didn't get to see more of you today." It seemed that both of them were shocked by Nico's answer, seeing as Taylor turned a bright red. Before going inside, Taylor gave him a bear hug and then hesitantly gave him a small peck on the cheek before quickly retreating to the safety of indoors.

Nico was in a daze the entire way back to his cabin, not really sure how such a small action had taken so little time and yet seemed to stretch out forever.

All the son of Hades wanted to do was collapse back onto his duvet and Not-Think about Taylor and her mysterious goodbye, so of course he climbed into bed and proceeded to think about it until he finally managed to fall asleep.

**_A/N; PLEASE READ: Wow, guys, I'm so sorry for being so terrible. It's been forever! I know I sound like I'm making excuses, but I haven't had inspiration for this story in a long time and school had me swamped. Also, I wrote most of the end of this chapter at like one in the morning (I'm actually falling asleep as I write this) so if it's absolute crap I will definitely fix it but I felt like you guys deserved something. Good news, though; I'm officially out of school, which means more time for writing! Yay! Sorry again, and if you can give me any constructive critisism at all for this chapter or even where you think/want this story to go next by all means, let me know! Love you, all of you, you amazing people! xoxo_**


	7. Chapter 7

Nico was starting to get concerned. He hadn't seen Taylor since Friday night at her cabin, and it was already Monday. He had actually begun to hope that she was ignoring him, because the alternative was the very real possibility that she was hurt, and there was no way that he ever wanted that to happen.

Nico was about to lay back on the ground near the lake to continue his sulking when he heard Annabeth and Piper speaking about him, or what he assumed to be him.

"I think that we should tell him-he has a right to know! He's been sick with worry about Taylor; he has completely withdrawn into himself again! I really don't think that what we're doing to him is fair, Pipes."

"You're right, but I guess I just kinda wanted to fix the situation before we told him about it, you know? She did come to us for help."

Nico heard the hushed voices go silent completely, assuming that the two girls had seen him in such close proximity to them.

"Nico, hey, we, uh, need to talk to you about something," Piper said, awkwardly coming toward him with Annabeth not far behind.

When Piper remained silent even after the two reached the Ghost King, Annabeth gave an exasperated sigh and took over. "Nico, something's happened to Taylor." At Nico's alarmed look she quickly explained herself, "She is perfectly fine, she isn't hurt, she's just not quite… _herself_, you might say. I can't really explain it, you're going to have to come see for yourself."

Immediately, Nico became wary of whatever was going on. He was absolutely sure that he wouldn't like whatever it was, but he really had no choice in the matter; there was something wrong with his friend, and he was going to go help her.

With hurried directions from the two girls, Nico began his search for Taylor, all the while thinking about what might be wrong with her. After a while, his imagination became too much for him to handle, so Nico forced himself to focus on the task at hand. According to Annabeth, she was hidden in a secret room in the Athena cabin created by Leo and some other Hephaestus kids.

Once he arrived, the Ghost King began scouring the cabin for the opening as described by Piper and Annabeth. After quite a bit of seeking, Nico found a button behind one of the larger bookcases; he practically got whiplash from the speed the unit used to spin around.

There, in a twin bed in a practically nonexistent room, lay a sleeping Taylor facing the opposite wall. There was something different about her that Nico couldn't quite pin down, though… But that could wait; she seemed fine, but he couldn't know for sure. As Nico went to go shake her awake, Taylor turned over to face him. Nico stood in shock; she looked more masculine: she had larger, rougher hands; shorter, scruffier hair; the beginnings of a mustache and beard; a sturdier, stockier build; and a, erm, flatter chest.

Just to make sure that it was actually Taylor in the bed, Nico shook the figure in the bed awake and watched as their expression turned to dazed and confused to embarrassed and even _more_ confused.

"Nico," the boy said, with a voice much deeper than Nico would have expected, "I should probably explain, huh?" The boy reached up and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, which Nico regrettably thought was quite endearing.

"This is going to sound super weird, but it's me, Taylor." Nico wasn't sure whether he should be more surprised that _she_ was a _he_, or that Nico thought that Taylor made a good-looking boy.

"I, uh, was walking past the Hecate cabin the other day and I guess something they were practicing went wrong and hit me and… ta-da! Here I am, a genderbent version of myself."

Nico was finally able to find his voice and hurriedly blurted out, "But you-how did that even-what kind of…? You know what, I don't want to know. Actually, if you don't mind, what does-does it feel weird? Suddenly being the opposite gender?" He nearly smacked himself, both for his illiteracy and for asking such a dumb question. Of course it would feel weird, why wouldn't it? Or, would it…? _Well, everyone's different; to each their own_, he thought.

"Actually, not really. I mean, it kinda is, after spending my entire life as, you know, a girl, but it isn't unpleasant. I mean, I'm still me, I've just been… rearranged," she- well, he now- gave a small smile to the Ghost King, a tiny blush accompanying it. "It's been a lot to get used to, and the girls have had to sneak me new clothes, but otherwise it doesn't really matter that much to me. Preferably, I'd rather be a girl, but it isn't as bad as you might think."

Nico simply gaped at him in surprise and a little bit of awe. He may have quite possibly found the most amazing person in the universe; too bad he is really a she.

"Well, erm, if there's something I can do…? I mean, don't you want to get out of here? I can grab one of my sweatshirts and you can pull the hood up, if you don't want to be recognized, or something."

"You know what? I think I'm okay with no sweatshirt. I'd very much like to go for a walk with you, though; I just, I need to get out of here and breathe fresh air, you know? Plus, I don't really care what others will think, I mean, I'm still me and if they have an issue with me being a different gender then that's their problem, not mine."

Nico was once again in awe of how absolutely incredibly Taylor was taking the entire situation. Speaking of 'Taylor'...

"Um, would you still like to be called Taylor, or would you like to be called something else while you're a guy?"

Taylor took a second to think about it, then finally said, "Ah, you know what? Taylor's just fine. It's my name, and it's unisex anyway, so, again, it doesn't really matter that much. You ready to go?"

"Yeah, sure, I'm ready if you are," Nico said, still in a daze from the insane situation he was currently in.

Taylor stood up from the bed and stretched, making sure to crack his back as much as he possibly could, and then began heading out the door, expecting Nico to follow in his footsteps. On his way out, Nico wondered how he could possibly even be there, in such a situation, surrounded by such great people that cared for him and for whom he actually cared for as well.

Maybe his dad knew what was best for him after all.


End file.
